Winding machine with a reciprocating yarn guide

ABSTRACT

The invention relates to a bobbin winding machine for yarn products in which the yarn is traversed reciprocably during winding by means of a traversing device guided in an endless manner over two guide shafts and incorporating a freely rotatable yarn guide which thus adopts its own rotary position suited to the path of the yarn at any particular moment. The traversing device may conveniently consist of an endless flexible belt or a length of coil spring the ends of which are joined to form an endless unit. The belt or spring may be varied in length by stretching to control the winding length.

United States Patent [72] Inventor Karl Haag Reutlingen, Germany [21] Appl. No. 797,076

[22] Filed Feb. 6, 1969 [45] Patented Jan. 11, 1972 73] Assignee Eugen Hirschburger KG Reutlingen, Germany [32] Priority Feb. 7, 1968 33] Germany [54] WINDING MACHINE WITH A RECIPROCATING YARN GUIDE 11 Claims, 7 Drawing Figs.

[52] US. Cl 242/43, 242/158 B [51] Int. Cl B65h 54/28 [50] Field of Search 242/43, 158 B, 158, 158.5

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,935,585 11/1933 Tornblom 242/158B Primary Examiner-Stanley N. Gilreath Attorney-Craig, Antonelli and Hill ABSTRACT: The invention relates to a bobbin winding machine for yarn products in which the yarn is traversed reciprocably during winding by means of a traversing device guided in an endless manner over two guide shafts and incorporating a freely rotatable yarn guide which thus ado ts its own rotary position suited to the path of the yarn at any particular moment. The traversing device may conveniently consist ofan endless flexible belt or a length ofcoil spring the ends of which are joined to form an endless unit. The belt or spring may be varied in length by stretching to control the winding length.

PATENTEU JAII I I 1972 SHEET 1 OF 3 (fill. #19 4 ATTORNEYS PATENTEUJANI 1 1972 3.6338 36 sum 2 [1F 3 INVENTOR KARL HAAG QM S ew-i r m ATTORNEY PATENTEDJANI 1 1972 3533 3 saw 3 0F 3 Fig. 6

INVENTOR ATTORNEYS WINDING MACHINE WITH A RECIPROCATING YARN GUIDE The invention relates to a bobbin winding machine with a reciprocating yarn guide movable along the bobbin.

With a known winding machine the yarn guide is driven by means of guide surfaces of a cam member rotating around an axis, for example a traverse screw shaft. The yarn guide is in the form of slides slidably guided on two rods parallel to the bobbin axis which is driven by a driver member from the traverse screw groove. Two stops fixed to the casing serve for rapid reversing of the movement of the yarn guide slide at the two end points. This ensures that the stress and wear of the drive and especially of the traverse screw groove does not reach unduly high values as a result of the inertia forces of the moving and reversing parts. It is disadvantageous however that due to the hard impact of the slide against the two stops the machine is not only very noisy but that substantial forces act on the slides and the stops which produce tilting moments if the stop does not act in line with the direction of movement of the center of gravity of the slide, which reacts on the sliding surfaces of the rod and can substantially reduce the working life of the drive.

Cross winding machines in which the yarns are guided in a grooved drum or a slotted drum do not have these disadvantages but it is not possible to guide the yarn directly in the slot with practically all synthetic yarns.

In contrast the object of the invention is to provide a winding machine with a substantially simplified yarn guide arrangement.

This object is obtained according to the invention by the fact that the yarn guide is arranged on a traverse drive which is guided in endless manner over two guide rollers and is kept in movement and the plane of which lies parallel to the run of the yarn at this point. The particular advantage of the invention lies in the fact that the yarn guide drive is very simply constructed and embodies only small reciprocating masses. Thereby the inertia forces occurring at reversal of the direction of movement are small and can be easily controlled. Since the masses are small large acceleration values are permissible. Consequently the belt can be guided over very small radii.

This means that the yarn guide drive according to the invention is suitable for very high working speeds. Further the yarn guide drive can be made very small which also acts favorably on the dimensions of the winding machine.

The speed of the surface drive can without difficulty be made controllable dependently on the momentary position of the yarn guide. Thereby it is possible to wind bobbins of different shape and/or to vary the winding density locally. If the bobbin is to be wound uniformly over its whole length it is desirable to increase the speed of the yarn guide in the region of the guide shafts.

The traverse drive can actuate a transversely guided slide on which the yarn guide is fastened. In one constructional form of the invention however all slides can be omitted for reducing the moving masses and the yarn guide is arranged in a sleeve rotatably secured to the traverse drive approximately parallel to the guide shafts and secured against falling out. The advantage of this construction lies in the fact that the yarn guide embodies no true slide and no guide member is necessary for the slides. Since the yarn guide is easily rotatable it adapts itself automatically to the particular course of the yarn Without thereby exerting undue forces on the yarn.

Basically a wide range of constructional embodiments can be provided for the traverse drive, for example as a chain or cable. One constructional form of the invention is however particularly advantageous if a belt or toothed belt is used as the traverse drive and the sleeve is embedded in the cross section of the belt. Then the belt can consist of a vulcanized product and the sleeve can be vulcanized in. In this way a yarn guide drive having a long working life is obtained in which the sleeve is secured in an operationally reliable manner. Another advantageous construction of the invention consists in the fact that a coil tension spring is used as the traverse drive with its ends connected to a ring and the sleeve is fastened to the coil tension spring.

The sleeve can be formed of a wide variety of materials but if the sleeve is vulcanized into'the belt it must fulfil the requirement of providing good adhesion to the belt material.

In one constructional form of the invention the sleeve or at least the inner surface of the sleeve consists of a sintered product, for example sintered bronze. The use of sintered materials offers the advantage of a long working life despite the high stresses on the inner surface since the sintered product can be arranged as a self-lubricating bearing and nevertheless has high strength. The particular advantage of this embodiment lies in the fact that apart from the lubricant which is embedded in the sintered material no further lubricant is necessary in the region of the yarn guide which could pass outwardly and soil the yarn.

The yarn guide can in the simplest case have the form of a circular pin with a semicylindrical head which contains at least one slot receiving the yarn. In another construction of the invention the yarn guide is arranged in the manner of a crank, one of the pins of which is supported in the traverse drive and the other is guided in a slide block. Thereby a particularly exact guiding of the yarn and a particularly quiet operation of the yarn guide is obtained.

In order to be able to produce windings of different winding lengths one constructional form of the invention provides that the belt is deformable in length and the spacing of the guide shafts one from the other is automatically controlled. In another construction provision is made that the guide shafts have varying diameters along their lengths and the belt is so guided and the guide shafts are displaceable and automatically controlled so that the belts can traverse different diameters so that an alteration in the stroke of the yarn guide is thereby obtained.

This arrangement is similar in construction to a drive device with a positive continuously (or infinitely) variable ratio such as is commonly known as a PIV-gear." In this construction of the invention the stroke of the yarn guide can be varied in a simple way within wide limits without changing any parts. Such an alteration in the stroke is possible without substantial changes in the machine and it is sufficient to provide suitable adjusting devices. Provision is made that this adjustment is effected automatically by the machine for example periodically during each stroke whereby it becomes possible to wind bobbins of various forms, for example the so-called pineapple bobbins.

The invention will be further described and explained on the basis of the constructional example shown in the drawing. The individual features of the constructional example can be used individually in other embodiments of the invention or in desired combination.

FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic plan of the winding and yarn guide region of a winding machine,

FIG. 2 is a section along the line lIII in FIG. 1,

FIG. 3 is a section through the traverse drive at the point at which the yarn guide is fitted,

FIG. 4 is a plan of the details shown in FIG. 3,

FIG. 5 is a diagrammatic view of a further yarn guide according to the invention,

FIG. 6 is a section along the line VI-VI through the arrangement according to FIG. 5,

FIG. 7 is a diagrammatic view of still a further yarn guide according to the invention.

In the embodiment illustrated shafts 2, 3 and 4 are rotatably supported on a frame 1. The shaft 3 carries a stepped belt pulley 5 which is driven from a driving motor, not shown. A stepped belt pulley 7 is driven from the stepped pulley 5 by means of a V-belt 6, and a V-belt 8 leads to a belt pulley 9 fastened on the shaft 4. Also a belt 10 runs from the stepped pulley 5 over a guide shaft 11 to an intermediate drive 12 indicated dotted. A bobbin 13 of cone shape is wound on the extension of the shaft 3.

A table 14 is pivotally supported in the frame 1 the pivot axis of which adopts the same angle to the axis of the shaft 3 as the peripheral surface of the bobbin. The table 14 embodies a lot 15 which is defined laterally by two arms 16, 17 forming a type of fork. A guide roller 18 rotatably supported between the ends of the arms 16, 17 rests on the bobbin and is driven by it. A further guide roller 19 is rotatably supported in the arms 16, 17 parallel to the guide roller 18 in the end part of the slot 15 nearest the pivot axis of the table 14. The axes of the guide rollers 18, 19 run parallel or approximately parallel to the pivot axis of the table 14.

The yarn guide drive is arranged between the two guide rollers. Two guide shafts 20, 21 arranged approximately perpendicular to the plane of the table 14 house a traverse drive in the form of a belt 22 or in some cases a toothed belt. One of the guide shafts is driven from the intermediate drive 12 in a manner not further shown. This drive varies the speed dependently on the speed of the shaft 3. Moreover it is possible to control the speed of the guide shafts dependently on the particular position of a yarn guide 23 fitted to the belt 22.

The shaft 4 carries a yarn feed roller 24, or the latter can be driven by a belt from the roller 18 instead of from the bobbin belt pulley so that the yarn feed roller 24 increases its speed with the increase in the bobbin diameter and correspondingly supplies more yarn.

The yarn is supplied from a supply bobbin, not shown, over the yarn feed roller 24, and the guide roller 19 to the yarn guide 23 whence it is wound on to the bobbin 13 over the guide roller 18. The yarn guide 23 travels backwards and forwards with the belt 22 parallel or approximately parallel to the outer surface of the bobbin 13. With increasing diameter of the bobbin 13 the guide roller 18 pressing on it is moved and produces a rocking movement of the table 14 and the parts fastened to it around the pivot axis of the table. Thereby however the guide roller 18 always maintains a position in which a peripheral line on the outer surface of the bobbin and a peripheral line on the outer surface of the guide roller 18 coincide at the contact point.

A sleeve 26 is secured in the belt 22, for example vulcanized in position. The yarn guide 23 has a free fit in the sleeve 26 and embodies a central pin 27 and flanges or discs 28, 29 fitted to the ends thereof. The spacing between the two discs 28, 29 is somewhat greater than the length of the sleeve which in turn is at least as long as the size of the belt in the direction of the length of the sleeve. The diameter of the pin 27 is somewhat less than the inner diameter of the sleeve 26 so that the yarn guide 23 is located in the sleeve 26 with a suitable clearance. A short cylindrical section extends from the disc 29 which merges into a semispherical head 31. The semispherical head 31 embodies two crossing slots 32, 33 through which the yarn is guided.

The yarn guide is thus supported so as to be easily movable and easily rotatable and is positioned by the pull of the yarn travelling through one of the slots so that the slot runs in the direction of tension of the yarn. At each deflection the yarn guide rotates relatively to the belt through 180.

Near the pivot axis the table 14 is provided with an eyelet 34 guiding the yarn 25 through which the yarn is drawn in its path from the yarn supply roller 24 to the yarn guide 23.

In the embodiment according to FIGS. 5 and 6 a coil spring 41 is used as the traverse drive, the ends being connected together so that they form a closed ring which, just like the belt in the embodiment according to FIGS. 1 to 4, is disposed around two guide shafts 42, 43 which are provided with guide pulleys 44, 45 respectively for the spring 41. A blocklike attachment 46 is fastened to several adjacent turns of the spring 41 being for example hard soldered to the spring, and having a bore to receive the yarn guide 47, which consists in this case of a piece of wire the ends of which are bent in opposite directions so that a type of crank with two crank pins 48, 49 is formed, one of which is supported in the bore of the attachment 46 while the other is bent at its end to form a yarn guiding eyelet 50. A roller 51 preferably of synthetic material is moreover supported on the pin 49 provided with the eyelet 50 and is guided between two bars 52 and 53 which form slide means for the roll 51.

The guide shafts 42, 43 are in turn supported in slides 54, 55 respectively both arranged on a threaded spindle 56. The spindle embodies two sections 57 and 58 with screw threads of opposite pitch so that by rotating the spindle the two slides 54 and 55 with the guide shafts 42 and 43 can be moved together or apart and thereby the spacing between the two guide shafts and thus the path of the yarn guide 47 can be varied. The threaded spindle 56 can be driven for example by means of the belt drive 59 through a gear box 60 in such manner that with increasing bobbin diameter the two slides 54 and 55 with the guide shafts 42 and 43 approach one another so that the stroke of the yarn guide 56 is smaller with increasing diameter of the bobbin and a so-called pineapple" winding is produced. The elasticity of the coil tension spring 41 used as the traverse drive permits adjustment of the spacing between the guide shafts 42 and 43 to a great extent. It should be understood that in place thereof an elastic belt or an elastic cord could be used.

One of the guide shafts 42 and 43, for example the guide shaft 43, is driven by means of a belt drive 61 from a drive unit 62 indicated diagrammatically.

FIG. 7 shows an embodiment of the invention wherein two guide shafts 20, 21 have a basically conical configuration. These guide shafts are rotatable in a common carrier 71 and are supported in their axial direction so as to be nondisplaceable with respect to the carrier 71 by means of shoulders 72, 73, 74, 75 disposed on both sides of the carrier 71. Shaft 21 can be provided with a V-belt wheel 76 adapted to be set into rotation by means of a V-belt 77 from a drive (not shown). The V-belt wheel 76 is fixedly attached to the shaft 21' for rotation therewith. The carrier 71 can also be provided with a threaded bore at the central portion for receiving a threaded spindle 78 which is rotatable on a part of the machine base 79 and which is prevented from being longitudinally displaced by means of shoulders 80, 81. The spindle 78 is provided with a crank 82 and a handle 83 on its free end in order to shift the carrier 71 by rotation of the crank 82, thereby also longitudinally displacing shafts 20, 21. The traversing belt 22, which rotates about the conical ends of the shafts 20, 21' and carries the yarn guide 23, is prevented from moving in a direction toward the diminishing diameter of shafts 20, 21 by means of counterrolls 84, 85 which are profiled in such a manner that the disc 28 shown in FIG. 3 does not interfere. For this purpose, the rolls 84, 85 can be provided with a deepened groove along their periphery. Thus, the stroke of the yarn guide 23 can be varied by rotating the crank 82.

It should be understood that the invention is not restricted to the constructional examples shown but changes are possible without departing from the scope of the invention defined by the following claims.

What I claim is:

1. Winding machine having a yarn guide for reciprocating lengthwise along a bobbin, comprising spaced guide shafts; traversing drive means guided over said guide shafts in an endless manner and rotatably driven means for adjusting the effective length of said traversing drive means; a yarn guide directly mounted at the traversing drive means; the traversing drive means being disposed in a plane substantially parallel to the path of yarn passing through said yarn guide; said guide being pivotably mounted to said traversing drive means such as to permit the yarn guide to pivot about an axis substantially perpendicular to the plane of the traversing drive means; and said traversing drive means being flexible in the longitudinal direction thereof so as to permit adjustment of the effective length of said traversing drive means.

2. Winding machine according to claim 1, in which the yarn guide is rotatably mounted in a sleeve on the traversing drive means about an axis parallel to the guide shafts and incorporating means to hold the yarn guide in position.

3. Winding machine according to claim 2 in which the traversing drive means consists of a belt and the sleeve is incorporated in the cross section of the belt.

4. Winding machine according to claim 3, in which the belt consists of a vulcanizable material and the sleeve is vulcanized in position.

5. Winding machine according to claim 2, in which the traversing drive means consists of a coil spring connected at its ends and in which the sleeve is secured to the coil spring.

6. Winding machine according to claim 2, wherein the inner surface of the sleeve consists of a sintered product.

7. Winding machine according to claim 1, wherein the yarn guide consists of a circular pin having a semispherical head incorporating at least one slot adapted to receive the yarn.

8. Winding machine according to claim 1, in which the yarn guide is of cranked shape having offset pin elements one of which is rotatably supported in the traversing drive means and the other is guided in a slide member.

9. Winding machine according to claim 1, in which said adjusting means includes means for adjusting the spacing between said guide shafts.

l0. Winding machine according to claim 1, in which the guide shafts have a varying diameter along their,length, said traversing drive means comprising a belt, and said adjusting means including means for displacing said guide shafts so that the belt can operate at different diameters on said guide shafts to provide an alteration in the stroke of the yarn guide.

11. Winding machine according to claim 1, wherein the traversing drive means is mounted on a swing frame terminated by a roller which bears on the bobbin being wound, said frame being deflected by contact with the bobbin and providing a mounting for the traversing drive means, said traversing drive means being movable in a plane parallel to the path of the yarn passing over the surface of the frame towards the roller, and the yarn guide being freely rotatably mounted to adopt a rotary position in the traversing drive means dependent on the path of the yarn being wound on the bobbin. 

1. Winding machine having a yarn guide for reciprocating lengthwise along a bobbin, comprising spaced guide shafts; traversing drive means guided over said guide shafts in an endless manner and rotatably driven means for adjusting the effective length of said traversing drive means; a yarn guide directly mounted at the traversing drive means; the traversing drive means being disposed in a plane substantially parallel to the path of yarn passing through said yarn guide; said guide being pivotably mounted to said traversing drive means such as to permit the yarn guide to pivot about an axis substantially perpendicular to the plane of the traversing drive means; and said traversing drive means being flexible in the longitudinal direction thereof so as to permit adjustment of the effective length of said traversing drive means.
 2. Winding machine according to claim 1, in which the yarn guide is rotatably mounted in a sleeve on the traversing drive means about an axis parallel to the guide shafts and incorporating means to hold the yarn guide in position.
 3. Winding machine according to claim 2 in which the traversing drive means consists of a belt and the sleeve is incorporated in the cross section of the belt.
 4. Winding machine according to claim 3, in which the belt consists of a vulcanizable material and the sleeve is vulcanized in position.
 5. Winding machine according to claim 2, in which the traversing drive means consists of a coil spring connected at its ends and in which the sleeve is secured to the coil spring.
 6. Winding machine according to claim 2, wherein the inner surface of the sleeve consists of a sintered product.
 7. Winding machine according to claim 1, wherein the yarn guide consists of a circular pin having a semispherical head incorporating at least one slot adapted to receive the yarn.
 8. Winding machine according to claim 1, in which the yarn guide is of cranked shape having offset pin elements one of which is rotatably supported in the traversing drive means and the other is guided in a slide member.
 9. Winding machine according to claim 1, in which said adjusting means includes means for adjusting the spacing between said guide shafts.
 10. Winding machine according to claim 1, in which the guide shafts have a varying diameter along their length, said traversing drive means comprising a belt, and said adjusting means including means for displacing said guide shafts so that the belt can operate at different diameters on said guide shafts to provide an alteration in the stroke of the yarn guide.
 11. Winding machine according to claim 1, wherein the traversing drive means is mounted on a swing frame terminated by a roller which bears on the bobbin being wound, said frame being deflected by contact with the bobbin and providing a mounting for the traversing drive means, said traversing drive means being movable in a plane parallel to the path of the yarn passing over the surface of the frame towards the roller, and the yarn guide being freely rotatably mounted to adopt a rotary position in the traversing drive means dependent on the path of the yarn being wound on the bobbin. 